//------------------------------// // Chapter 3: The Mountain Mare, Part 2: Wishes, Dreams, and a Fork in the Road // Story: Gathering Dust // by PapaLeto //------------------------------// Chapter Three: The Mountain Mare, Part 2: Wishes, Dreams, and a Fork in the Road I don't actually remember waking up, but I remember being awake at some point in the middle of the night. I looked up and saw that the moon had risen past its apex and was just starting to wane toward the west. I blinked a bit, then realized that the reason for everything being a bit blurry was my glasses being stowed in my bag. This whole travelling thing was a bit new to me. I put the simple black frames to my face and got a better look around. Flim and Flam were curled in their bags, separated by perhaps an inch or two of rocky soil. They didn't appear to have moved at all, until I realized with a start that they had in fact switched places at some point; earlier Flim had been on the left and Flam on the right, but now Flam was on the left and Flim on the right. I scratched my head, not daring to question the nighttime habits of the strange pair. When I wake up in the night like that, I can take several hours before I can get back to sleep sometimes, so I knew that this would likely be no different. Deciding to accept my new fate rather than fight it, I extracted myself from the cocoon, stretched a bit, and stood up, breathing deeply of the clean, sharp mountain air. A brisk breeze rolled through, bristling my fur and earning a shiver from me. I went over to my bed (read: pile of blankets) and lifted one up to wrap around myself as I went for a small walk. It was at this time that I started a bit, puzzled. I counted and recounted, and sure enough, I was down one blanket from when I went to sleep. “Oh spare me, that’s not cool,” I muttered to myself. But now I was on a mission: find the missing blanket. Considering the breeze, it was not impossible that it simply was carried off by the wind. I therefore started my search by proceeding down the path in the direction the wind was blowing. After trotting for about a minute, I started to lose hope. “The wind could have carried it all the way down the mountain by now,” I muttered. I then shook my head a bit. “Come on, you haven’t even really tried yet. Can’t lose heart now.” I gathered up whatever resolve was left in my tired self and pressed on. Fortunately, my efforts were rewarded only a couple minutes later; I found the blanket. And underneath the blanket was a suspiciously pony-shaped lump. I prodded the lump, but got no response. I lifted the blanket with a bit of magic and found our new blue friend from dinner, curled up into a ball. When the blanket was pulled off, she shivered and curled just a bit tighter, clearly not well-adjusted to the mountain air. She also half-mumbled something, no doubt containing the words 'great' and/or 'powerful', but I daren't guess. There was no way I was going to let her stay like that. "Sheesh," I muttered, wrapping the blanket snugly back around her. She breathed deeply as the warmth helped her settle back in to comfortable sleeping. I couldn't help but smile slightly at the sight; I guess I felt like I was helping her out. However, I decided that I wanted to give her just the slightest of a hard time, so I magicked the ground in front of her face so that it read: You could have just asked, you know. Satisfied and chuckling to myself slightly, I returned to the Flim Flam Brothers and curled back into my own blankets. I found it surprisingly easy to fall asleep after that. I don't remember dreaming much, but if I did they would have been pleasant. When morning eventually arrived, I awoke to find that the twins were already up and about, packing up their goods and making ready to get moving. We spoke little as we packed, and I didn't mention Trixie's theivery and my subsequent charity either. After about fifteen minutes we were on the road down the mountain, passing a good number of sleeping ponies who weren't yet ready to start the day. Eventually we passed the spot where I had seen Trixie, but she was nowhere to be seen. The note had been erased, and I saw little clods of slightly-darker dirt strewn about, suggesting she had kicked the note out of the dust. I wondered if she had done so out of anger, and thought of reminding her that I could have put the note on her flank. Before too much longer, the twins were arguing again, this time about whether or not the mustache was actually attractive in the first place. "Look here," Flam proclaimed, magically twirling on end of his stache, "it simply screams class, sophistication, business! Can't go wrong with a well-tended stache!" "A clean shaven stallion is surely more alluring to the ladies, however," Flim retorted. "Funny you should say that, brother mine; I haven't seen any mares in your company of late!" Flam responded. "Nor I in yours!" Flim yelped, pulling one end of his brother's mustache and making him similarly yelp. I decided to step in before things got out of hoof. "Look here ya crop of goons!" I said, stepping between them. "Whether you look better or worse with a mustache, I maintain that it's very necessary anyway. Tell you two apart, yeah? So stop arguing about it when it serves a very practical purpose!" The pair of them went muttering off to opposite sides of the GSUS60K and sulked for a while. While they were sulking, I saw an oncoming fork in the road. The signs read Baltimare and Appleoosa in one direction and Ponyville in the other. I stroked my chin for a moment, thinking. On one hoof, these two have already said they want to go to Appleoosa to scam some bits out of some country folks. Since they're my drivers, I guess it's my duty to go along with their plan. But on the other hoof, their plan is conniving at best, positively malicious at worst. Is it not perhaps my duty to Equestria in general to protect the Appleoosans from this dastardly pair? By that logic, I guess I should do everything in my power to keep them out of Appleoosa. But then they'll just do the same thing elsewhere, I would wager. So I have to be careful no matter where I take them. That's even assuming I can turn the GSUS60K without their noticing. But they're sulking so expertly, it may just work. If I even want to stop their plan at all, that is, which is kind of rude considering they're bringing me along. If they find out I turned us off course, they might kick me off! I then recalled what Trixie said about going to Ponyville. Well, that settles it. I can get my blanket back at least. I began the turn early, turning us out so the turn itself would feel slight and wide as opposed to a sharp, noticable turn. The brothers appeared not to notice the slight listing of the machine as we slowly turned right onto the path toward Ponyville. I cheered silently to myself as we completed the turn and got to driving straight again. Several minutes later, Flim emerged from his pouting corner, followed a short while later by Flam. Without even having to say anything to each other, they mystically were right as rain again, chuckling and laughing it up. Neither seemed to realize the sun was slowly creeping down in the same direction as our travel. We kept this up for about an hour, but then something I hadn't accounted for happened. As we passed a lot of carriages and pedestrians on the road, we eventually did catch up to Trixie since we were on an automated transport, about twice as fast as most of the ponies who were hoofing it. When I saw her cloaked form on the horizon, at first I was inexplicably excited. Then my heart skipped a beat for a whole different reason: if Flim and Flam saw her, they would realize we had taken the wrong path and the whole plan would be compromised. She was quickly drawing nearer and nearer, and to my horror, as we approached she heard the sound of the GSUS60K and was turning to look at us. I could see the recognition in her eyes from were I stood. I had to act fast. "Uhhh, uhh, hey guys! I think I heard a, um, pinging noise down in the steering mechanism somewhere. Maybe you should check it out?" I asked a bit too loudly. The pair looked at me, and Flim raised his left brow, Flam his right. They turned to each other and then back to me. "What kind of pinging?" they asked in unison. Luna help me. "Uh, it was like a rattling ping. Like something was loose in there somewhere or something. A nut or bolt somewhere?" I explained pitifully. Trixie was now trotting toward us. I had to try very hard not to look right at her. To my utter disbelief, the pair nodded after a moment and went over to the steering mechanism, pulling off the outer panel and inspecting the inside. In the meantime, I rushed to the front of the machine to try to head off Trixie. "Get out of sight!" I hissed at her desperately before she had the chance to say anything. "What are you doing here?" she asked in her regular, very full voice. I held a hoof over my mouth and shushed her as she deftly leapt onto the deck of the GSUS60K. "Why do you care? Be quiet please!" I pleaded. She cocked her head slightly. "Why must I be quiet?" she asked in a voice just barely quieter than the previous one. "Because they'll hear you!" I whispered. "Why is that bad?" she asked unfuriatingly. To this day I firmly believe she was just messing with me at that point. "Because they don't know we are going to Ponyville!" I responded exasperatedly. At that moment, I heard the brothers yell "Aha!" in unison. I didn't realize I had spoken so loudly. I braced for the impact of their wrath, teeth clenched. To my surprise, however, I then heard Flam say, "There's the culprit! Loose screw on this wire clasp must have been making that noise, banging around and whatnot!" There was actually something loose in there? I thought incredulously. "See, Dusty? All fixed up!" Flim began saying, and I saw the bottoms of his legs as he started coming around the center console. In a panic, I turned and bucked Trixie off the GSUS60K, sending her flying with a yelp off the side of the rolling machine. I know, I know. Why in Equestria would any gentlecolt dare eject a mare so forcefully from a moving vehicle? I have no answer for you, I'm afraid. In the heat of the moment, anything can happen. "O-oh, is that so? Awesome, it was driving me nuts!" I responded, trotting forward to meet him. As he and Flam got back to their usual sitting space, leaving me to steering for a while longer, I turned and looked behind me. Sure enough, there was Trixie, glaring at me, her mane disheveled and messy. I mouthed an I'm sorry to her, to which she gritted her teeth. Not daring to communicate any further as of yet, I turned and faced forward, barely capable of even blinking for how nervous I was. About ten minutes later, I had calmed down a considerable amount, confident that Trixie was well behind us. The twins and I set to joking around, having a much more jovial time. I was confident that I had escaped judgment after all. I was mistaken. After a bit, Flim stopped in the middle of a joke he was telling when he saw something off the side of the road. I realized with horror that since I hadn't been facing forward, I wasn't able to spot any oncoming dangers. I watched with silent horror as the sign that proclaimed Ponyville: 5 miles passed us by. Flim and Flam watched the sign for a few seconds, then slowly reached out with their magic and pulled on the brakes, slowing us gently to a stop. They were silent for a few moments, which caused me to tense up considerably. Looking back on it, I don't know why I was so nervous. I wasn't in any real danger; ponies were all along the roads, so they couldn't do anything really bad. I guess I was just caught up in the moment is all. "Dusty..." Flim said slowly. "Did you..." "Set us on the wrong path?" Flam finished. I nodded. "How long have we been on the wrong path?" Flim asked. I shrugged my shuddering shoulders. "I guess two hours by now?" Flam facehoofed in painful slow motion. "Why did you set us back four hours from our destination?" "B-because...uh...Trixie stole a blanket of mine! I wanted it back! So since she said she was going to Ponyville, I decided to pursue her!" I offered weakly. "Mm-hmm," Flim said, emphasizing each syllable with a half-whinny. "Brother mine, I think we may need to reconsider the status of our companion here," Flam said, magically twirling his mustache. "I think you're quite right, Flam," Flim said, eyes narrowed. "I think an ejection is in order. What say you?" "I say that's a grand idea, Flim," Flam responded, narrowing his eyes as well. I gulped. "Uh, an ejection?" I asked. Suddenly, I felt magic wrap around me as my body left the deck and went flying through the air. I waved my hooves in panic for a while as I cascaded over the crowd of pedestrians before hitting the dirt with a resounding thud. A few seconds later, I saw my saddlebag go flying off the GSUS60K as well, papers and scrolls flying everywhere. It took me a good few minutes to get all my belongings together. Ponies would occasionally carelessly trot on a scroll here or there, which slowed everything down. Once it was all in order, I put the bag back on my back and sighed. Just when I thought I had peace, I felt a hooftap on my shoulder. Turning slowly, not wanting to believe it, I watched as Trixie's eyes locked with my own. She didn't look too happy.